Red Sox-Yankees live blog

Red Sox! Yankees! Ortiz! Ellsbury! Wang! Rodriguez!

OK, so it's not Alex Rodriguez. It's just John Rodriguez. According to preliminary research, however, he is an actual, legitimate, totally real and not imaginary baseball player. (He hit has seven career home runs in the major leagues -- and three triples. Take that, Yuri Sucart.)

Just for fun, and because it seems like everyone else always does it and peer pressure works on me, let's try a Red Sox-Yankees live blog for tonight's game. It starts at at 7 on NESN.

Early observations: The Yankees have brought a fairly meager traveling squad to City of Palms Park, a squad featuring Alex Rodriguez replacement Cody Ransom at third base. So says the Globe, "Aside from that, there's not much intrigue. For example: Xavier Nady is batting cleanup."

Let's face it, though: With Rodriguez (Alex, not John) sidelined, who is going to hit cleanup on days when Teixeira (Mark, not Ruy) isn't hitting cleanup? In all seriousness, isn't it going to be Nady?

(Xavier, not XA900 Power Amp. Just in case you were confused.)

***

An interesting decision the Red Sox made, starting George Kottaras behind the plate. It's the first time all spring that Kottaras has gotten to catch Wakefield; a week ago, he and Josh Bard both made the trip to Port Charlotte to face the Rays and Bard was behind the plate for Wakefield's three innings.

It seemed obvious earlier in the spring that the Red Sox had chosen Bard as their backup catcher, barring injury. Kottaras wasn't catching Wakefield at all. Bard even had the locker that Doug Mirabelli and Kevin Cash once had. And at this point, you'd think you'd want to give your backup catcher as many chances to handle Wakefield as possible.

Maybe they're just showcasing the out-of-options 25-year-old in case another general manager happens to tune into NESN? Who knows?

Anyway, Kottaras fields his first knuckleball flawlessly.

And we're off.

***

Wakefield walks Brett Gardner to start the game.

Every time Clay Buchholz turns in another spectacular outing, one is forced to wonder just what it would take for the Red Sox to cut Wakefield loose and give Buchholz his rotation spot. At a certain point, a 4.50 ERA isn't good enough to cut it in a rotation like Boston's, right?

***

Jerry Remy: "You talk about Kottaras making the start tonight for the Red Sox: He caught Charlie Zink at the Triple-A level, I would guess, so (he has) some experience..."

Don Orsillo: "Yes."

Jerry Remy: "You didn't mention that, did you?"

Don Orsillo: "I did, but it's OK. It sounded good then, too."

Welcome back, Jerry. Welcome back.

***

Nifty play by Mike Lowell in his first chance at third base since last fall, getting in the way of a ground ball, barehanding it in mid-air and starting a 5-4-3 double play.

It's a good start. The next step: Going to his left and right. The step after that: Hitting.

***

David Ortiz against Chien-Ming Wang in the bottom of the first inning: The marquee at-bat of the night.

Pitch 1: Swing and a miss at a sinker in the dirt.
Pitch 2: Fastball inside.
Pitch 3: Sinker grounded to first for an out.

Remy: "I have no doubt that last year, the injuries certainly had an effect on David Ortiz."

The question, Mr. Dawg: What happens if those injuries keep lingering?

(Ortiz now is 0-for-8 in spring training at-bats. He was 2-for-8 with a double for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic.)

***

Passed ball for Kottaras with a runner on first in the top of the second. Somewhere, Josh Bard smiles.

Wakefield, meanwhile, walks Jose Molina and surrenders an RBI single to Angel Berroa. Somewhere, Brad Penny does some shoulder exercises -- or sips a mai tai, actually. He did pitch in an intrasquad game this morning.

***

Here's a fun Mike Lowell story for you: Yours truly was in the City of Palms dugout eight days ago as part of a media gaggle talking to Lowell about his return. Wanting to ask a question of substance, I tried to phrase something about how the return from the hip injury affects the way he gets his timing back and otherwise develops his swing as compared to the way he gets his timing back and otherwise develops his swing in a normal March. And if that sounds convoluted there, imagine how it sounded coming from a rookie reporter still a little overwhelmed by the idea of covering his first spring training.

Fortunately, Lowell was gracious about it.

"I really don't understand what you're getting at," he said. "Tell me in dumb people terms."

Right. Because the problem was that he was too dumb to understand the question and not that I was too dumb to ask it in a coherent fashion.

Anyway, based on his first at-bat tonight, Lowell's swing looks just fine. In fact, he got ahold of something that Wang hung over the outside part of the plate and yanked it over the left-field fence. He ran the bases a little bit gingerly, but it sure is nice to see a little pop out of that bat.

***

Am I the only person who saw the Syracuse-UConn highlights and thought, "Wow, that's a lot of missed shots"?

***

It has to be a good sign to see the Red Sox roughing up Chien-Ming Wang. You can't make too much of most spring training results, but given that Josh Beckett hasn't given up a single run in nine spring training innings, it's still encouraging to see the Red Sox get to the Yankees' ace. (Is he the Yankees' ace? Who starts on Opening Day? Does Sabathia get that start based on his contract?)

And then Ortiz goes yard on a pitch down and in, right in his wheelhouse. Another good sign.

***

It wasn't that long ago that Ken Griffey Jr. re-signed with the Mariners and I was wondering who it was, along with Mike Cameron, that made up the package the Reds sent to Seattle.

Now I remember. Brett Tomko.

Mike Lowell greets Tomko with a single up the middle for his second hit of the second inning.

***

Top of the third inning: Xavier Nady hits a two-run double to pull the Yankees within 7-3, and Jose Molina -- the middle Molina brother, in case you were wondering -- singles home Nady to make it 7-4.

Once again: How badly does Wakefield have to pitch to lose his rotation spot? In Terry Francona's mind, is that even an option? I'd be fascinated to hear the manager's thoughts -- if he was injected with truth serum, of course.

***

Pitching coach John Farrell did a live interview with NESN:

... on the depth in his pitching staff: "Overall, we've thrown the ball pretty well, particularly some of the young guys in their first year of camp. Daniel Bard has been somewhat the talk of the camp, and we'll get a chance to see him tonight. The additions that we've had -- Brad Penny threw a two-inning sim(ulated) game today, and Saito will pitch tonight -- it's been good from a pitching standpoint."

... on the length on spring training: "The thing we've done with our starters is allow them to go two innings apiece through their first two starts. We're not hitting that dead arm we otherwise might when we're ramping them up to three and four innings sooner in camp."

... on Daisuke Matsuzaka: "We get daily updates. ... He does go again on Sunday for his second start in the WBC, and the four innings he threw against Korea were solid once he got past somewhat of an extended first inning. We're monitoring very closely the number of pitches thrown, and everybody involved in the WBC is supportive, but at the same time, we have our concerns and rightfully so."

... on the overall strength of the pitching staff: "Health will have a lot to do with that. Provided we stay healthy and get Saito through camp healthy, which he's been outstanding. The recovery of John Smoltz is going very well, and he'll join us at some point either in May or in June, and Brad Penny was encouraging today. Not only will we have depth, but we'll have quality up and down the 12-man staff."

***

Jonathan Papelbon fans Xavier Nady on what looked like a splitter up and in. Take that, cleanup spot.

***

David Ortiz strikes out on a fastball away in the bottom of the fourth inning. All the concern that was alleviated by his home run in the second inning -- it's back!

Just kidding. Sort of.

***

In case you're wondering what it is that Takashi Saito -- two strikeouts in yet another scoreless inning of work -- brings to the Red Sox bullpen, consider this:
* In 2005, the 12th man on the pitching staff was Matt Mantei, who had a 6.49 ERA in 26 2/3 innings, or Jeremi Gonzalez, who had a 6.11 ERA in 56 innings.
* In 2006: Rudy Seanez, who had a 4.82 ERA in 46 2/3 innings.
* In 2007: Kyle Snyder, who had a 3.81 ERA in 54 2/3 innings but who was never what you'd call dominant.
* In 2008: David Aardsma, who had a 5.55 ERA in 48 2/3 innings.

In 2009, the 12th man on the pitching staff likely would have been Wes Littleton, acquired in an offseason trade with the Texas Rangers. Littleton has a 19.29 ERA in 4 2/3 innings so far this spring.

Instead, if everyone stays healthy, there won't really be a 12th man. Saito had a 1.40 ERA in 2007, his last full season; he's not what you'd really call a 12th man. Thing is, you can't really call Justin Masterson, Hideki Okajima, Manny Delcarmen, Ramon Ramirez or lefty specialist Javier Lopez the 12th man, either.

That's some impressive quality depth.

***

A taste of what it's like to cover spring training: Many of the beat writers won't get to see Saito's outing tonight; the fourth or fifth inning is right about the time the starting pitcher is showered and ready to meet with the media before heading out for the night.

That means a 10-minute press conference right in the middle of the game. Good times.

It makes for less work after the game, but it's difficult to keep track of everything when you end up in a room under the third-base bleachers for the fourth or fifth inning.

***

We'll close out the night of blogging -- the late innings of a spring training game are an endurance test I'm not going to pass on a Friday night -- with a look at phenom Daniel Bard's outing in the top of the sixth inning:

First up: Ramiro Pena. Weak ground ball to second. One out.

Next up: Top prospect Austin Jackson. Gets buzzed with a breaking ball that didn't break on the second pitch; strikes out on a 98-mile-an-hour heater on the fourth pitch.

Next up: Justin Leone. Weak popup to short.

Another pretty routine inning for Bard, who now has allowed just one hit and struck out eight in his five official outings this spring. Watch out, Boston. He's on his way.